I have a tendency to oversimplify and this will be no exception.

General Business use & Corporate America usually are better off with PC's

The MACs are beautiful & I will probably buy one for my Partner Sandra when her PC bites the dust.

I sell proprietary software for the Auto collision repair industry. A MAC will not work for the software these companies need & use. Many industries are PC dependent. Yes I know the Mac will run PC software but there a good chance it will not be supported by many industries.

I still miss my Atari LOL that was a ton of fun.

So to the original poster, if money is no object go for the MAC

Jerry

Hammer,
Yep, we have some stuff in common.

As I always say, there is the right tool for every job,,,so get it and learn to use it properly and BANG! Job done.

Lee S.

Hammer,
Yep, we have some stuff in common.

As I always say, there is the right tool for every job,,,so get it and learn to use it properly and BANG! Job done.

Lee S.

A couple years ago I bought a mac, nice machine, but a lot of free little programs I used in windows I couldn't get for mac. I use powertracks and I couldn't find a comparable cheap product for the mac. Sure I could get the latest sequencer for 400 bucks but ....
Like others have said I just didn't want to spend any more time learning to do something that I already knew how to do on a pc.

I'm sure that if I started on a mac or switched to a mac after getting disgusted with win 98 I would be a happy camper, but I'm still using xp and have set up my daughters computers using vista and find that I'm satisfied.
At this point I don't want to "reinvent the wheel." As they say.
My niece is the manager of the Apple store so I got a good deal and didn't loose anything when I sold it.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 08-18-2009).]

You can do anything Powertracks can do (and MUCH more) in GarageBand. And, if the need arises, you can get Logic (at about half the price that Cubase demands) and it will open GarageBand projects as is, allowing you to take them further if needed. GarageBand is basically Powertracks and Acid, combined with a bunch of good quality free VSTi's and loops. All for FREE...

The problem is, you can't find something the SAME as your favorite applets from the PC. But you can sure find something that will allow you to do the same thing, albeit in a different way. And often a better, more elegant and advanced way. But, bottom line is, if Powertracks were so important, (or any other favorite PC app), you can run it on a Mac! Depending on the program, you might even be able to run it without rebooting...

I know that you can't come straight over without some adjustment period (Lord knows, I'd need one, too!), but after the adjustment period, at least you are in the hands of a computer company that takes OS stability and internet security SERIOUSLY. You can for sure forget everything you had to learn about spyware and virus paranoia

I have 4 PCs and 3 Macs in my house, and use both, so I do speak from experience.

There are people who simply adore Mac, and will tell you that anything with Apple logo is far superior to anything else on the market. My opinion is is much more temperate.

I think that while Macs work well, and have some nice, polished features, I find the Mac OS not very efficient. For example, for me it is much more intuitive to have the window close button on the top right (like in Windows), than on the top left, like in the Mac). You can resize MS windows by moving any window's border. On the other hand, the only way to resize a Mac window is to grab a little triangular handle area in the lower right corner. This is inconvenient, and if that corner of the window is low enough, the dock will pop up when you move the cursor down, not really letting you get to the resize handle of the window. Of course, those are very minor annoyances.

Overall, Apple hardware is very high-end, fairly nicely designed, and well built. Still, there are more annoying differences which Apple has purposely perpetuating to appease the Mac fanboys and aggravate users like me. It has no forward delete key, so to do a forward delete you need to use both hands - press the FN key in the lower left corner with the left hand, and the backspace key in the upper right corner. There are other keyboard differences, which for me make it much more efficient to type on the PC. I do like the two-finger scrolling of the Mac, which is very convenient. There is only one mouse button on the trackpad (none on the newer Mac computers), but tapping with one or two fingers sufficiently replaces single/double click.

Many people laud Mac's reliability, but in my experience it crashes nearly as often as a Windows machine. Apple tech-support is very user-friendly, if a bit condescending, but beyond the first year, you have to pay several hundred $$ to have it extended to 3 years. With my experience, it was well worth it - I have had 2 hard drive crashes, a faulty battery, and a slew of other failures that required a call to tech support. So if you go for a Mac, make sure to back up your machine regularly (thankfully made easy with the Time Machine backup mechanism, which is a part of the operating system).

As far as software goes, there are simple applications that are built in. IChat is an excellent appllication, but I find that I use Skype more. iCal (Calendar) and Address Book are so-so, and are incompatible with the MS Outlook. Some people find them adequate, but if you are used to Outlook, you may not like them at all (I sure don't). In fact, while you can spend the money and buy MS Office for Mac, their organizer version, Entourage, is also unable to share data with MS Outlook (I did not try going through Exchange, but most private users do not use it anyways). I couldn't find a karaoke player for the Mac (like Van Basco for the PC). There are many software titles that are available only for the PC, and not for Mac, but for most common tasks you can find equivalent apps running on the Mac platform. Even if you don't, all modern Macs (with Intel processors) have ability to run Windows software, using two different ways - BootCamp (allowing you to select booting into the Mac or Windows OS when starting up), or using a Windows emulator (VMware Fusion, or Parallels). I use VMWare, and it works well; still, it is annoying to have to switch between the OSes. You will need to have a valid Windows license (plus the ones for the appropriate applications) for using either BootCamp or Windows emulators. For all serious work I use Windows applications (I have Office in both Windows and Mac, but almost never use the latter). I don't use much audio or video editing, but my overall feeling is that I could have saved $1000 by buying a mid- or high-end Windows laptop.

Hope this helps,
Alex

I am still undecided whether to buy my brother's Imac, which I am using. By the way, the keyboard failed. The x and c keys quit working. New keyboard = $50.

I did get that remote Windows app thing that I wrote about in the original post to work on the Imac. The tech guy gave me a link to a Mac workaround. But, problem is, I can't print, I can only view. So, not ideal.

For a fix for now, I am considering buying a cheap laptop. I have heard so many horror stories about Vista, I am hesitant to buy anything that does not have WinXP. Windows 7 might be fine but it's not out yet.

I can buy a Toshiba 10.1" netbook for $435 locally and it has WinXP on it. Intel Atom processor N280. 1gb ram, 160gb drive.

But I can buy a refurbished Toshiba with 17" screen for $350 (due to a $50 rebate) but it has Vista on it. Toshiba Satellite L355-S7905 Laptop Intel Celeron 585 2.16GHz, 17” TFT, 3GB, 160GB, DVD SuperMulti, 802.11b/g, Windows Vista Home Home Basic.

I have been told that you really can't wipe out all remnants of Vista if you try to install WinXP on it after reformatting. Plus, I'd have to buy WinXP.

The only reason I would consider buying the Vista laptop is because it has 17" screen versus 10.1" for the other. Then again, the little netbooks are small and handy to haul around.

Another concern is buying a laptop that might run hot. Some have had that problem.

Hmmm... not having a DVD drive is a hassle. Netbooks I have seen do not have one. So, that would make me lean toward the 17" laptop, which has DVD. But, it has Vista. Darn.

Any comments?

[This message has been edited by SemiLiveMusic (edited 08-31-2009).]

Bill, my suggestion is avoid a laptop with a Celeron processor. I'd also suggest a full size laptop rather than the netbook. I bought a netbook for my wife and I would not want to use it on a regular basis. Of course, that depends on what purpose you're using it for. A netbook could be handy to use on a gig.

You just may want to wait ( if you can hold out) until October 22 and just get a full sized laptop with Windows 7 installed from the factory. At work I use XP Pro, but at home I'm running Windows 7 RC( release candidate) that I got as a free download. I rarely use XP at home anymore, I'm really liking Win7. If you can't wait to purchase a laptop just be sure you get a laptop the the coupon that entitles you to upgrade to Win 7 for free. Good luck.



[This message has been edited by Stephenm52 (edited 08-31-2009).]

Still persisting with Windows? You must be mad.

The netbooks are fine for web browsing and certain other things, but not really sophisticated audio or video work. They are awesome to travel with - I have done it and now have a lightweight laptop on my wish list. The battery lasts a long time, the built-in camera is great for skype. OTOH, with the low processing power of the CPU and small screen, expect to run no more than one or two business applications at once. You should not pay more than $350 US for a 10-inch Atom machine. You can buy an external, USB-powered DVD drive for about $50. It is a bit of a hassle, but you don't need to carry it when not needed. I would suggest that you look for a dual-core Intel CPU laptops for any kind of real processing power. Don't go for the cheapest - it will last you longer. BTW, there are some thin and light notebooks (Dell Studio 14z, Lenovo U350, Acer Timeline) that may provide a good balance between portability (around 4 lbs), battery life, and screen size/processing power for around $600 (without built-in DVD).

Once again, the Windows and Macs machines have some advantages and disadvantages, and I would disregard the advice from anyone who only sees advantages of one and disadvantages of the other. Go for the objective advice, not PC-vs-MAC commercials.